Doug Ford is threatening environmental stewardship, democratic norms, and Indigenous rights – Indigenous Watchdog
June 18, 2025
Canada’s National Observer: In just over a month, Doug Ford’s Conservative government has rammed through perhaps its most serious attack on environmental stewardship, democratic norms and Indigenous rights. The Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act, 2025, framed as an “economic growth” policy, continues Premier Ford’s pattern of provincial overreach, sidelining science and bypassing accountability in favour of deregulation and corporate interests.
Environmental destruction on a scale worse than the Greenbelt scandal
Bill 5 repeals Ontario’s Endangered Species Act (ESA), 2007, which was once the gold standard in Canada for biodiversity protection. Before it was weakened by regulatory changes, the ESA mandated science-based recovery plans and required permits for projects impacting critical habitats. Its replacement, the “Species Conservation Act,” further dismantles these safeguards, eliminating the requirement for recovery strategies for endangered and threatened species, and allowing the removal of species from the species-at-risk list based on political ideology, rather than evidence.
The act also introduces a series of proposals that lay the groundwork for habitat destruction on a scale much larger than the Greenbelt.
